Mighty Movie Podcast: Green Director Sophia Takal

A couple of well-educated Brooklynites move to the country, strike up a friendship with one of the locals, and that's where things get dark in Sophia Takal's directing debut, Green. But hold up: This isn't Deliverance or Straw Dogs. What Takal is after is a more incisive examination of isolation, dependency, and jealousy as the girlfriend (Kate Lyn Sheil) perceives herself marginalized by the growing friendship between her lover (Lawrence Michael Levine, who also produced) and the townie (Takal).

Takal and Levine had previously reversed roles -- he directing, she producing -- for the indie comedy Gaby on the Roof in July, and Takal here continues to investigate, to impressive effect, the collaborative opportunities of a small crew and a partially improvised storyline, not to mention how the lush greenery of her setting can serve as counterpoint to one person's drive towards self-destruction. This is one of those rare, small films that delivers a dynamite wallop, and I was happy to sit down with Takal to discuss how it came together.

Click on the player button to hear the interview (or right-click to download).